REPLICA BOARD

I've been working on various replica shapes from the original ‘81 quiver, primarily the 6'6 big Bells board but also the 7'6 Pipe winning board and also the Coke board a 6'2  20 1/8  2 ¾ single flyer rounded square tail.

 I've been developing these boards on the APS 3000 machine and software. This has been enjoyable for me and really is a great exercise to develop your skills as a designer on this type of program. The latest board is the Coke board.

The difference with this one is it is being sprayed by Martyn Worthington probably the most famous practitioner of spray art in the history of the Australian board making industry. In this case he is basically copying the original boards’ panel spray, pretty simple for Martyn. It is then to be finished by Steve Zoeller, glassed and sanded. Steve is the original sander of the first Thrusters in the old Energy factory founded in 1976.

 This board is a charity board to be auctioned on 3rd June, Saturday night, see accompanying photos. The thing about this board is it came out pretty good and close to the original, you can never get it exact. I like the deep vee bottom and the outline shape is pretty spot on. The rails are the element I like the most. The original board has pretty horrid rails, a flat deck going to low rails that don’t feel that good in the hand. This replica board has very similar rails to the original, not quite as chunky but just fit the hand in a nice way and feel more functional.

                            6'2 Single Flyer Rounded Square tail, Filler Coated ready to be sanded.

Original Thruster fin templates from the 80's.

 I'm inspired by this board to look at producing another run 810 model series of boards with a similar rail and plan shape but more modern rockering with concave bottom contours mixed in with the vee.

                              Steve Zoeller and the charity 6'2 at the Mona Vale Energy factory.

FUSION MODEL

We have been tweaking the Fusion ever so slightly to get it as balanced as possible. The area being worked on is the volume throughout, with minor changes to the forward and tail thickness and then the plan shape specifically the nose and tail. Just pushing the area out up to 1/8" so that's only 1/16" per side to add a touch more surface area and volume giving increased flat line speed.

The feedback is good from the team, Shyama Buttonshaw says he is able to surf the Fusion in similar fashion to the XFC but he has more control doing aerials, a little more launching speed and good cushioning feel on the landing, increasing attempt and complete percentages which is nice. Personally I'm finding I love the extra speed and therefore looseness in waves 2 to 4 feet. I'm surfing Fusion 1" shorter than my normal 6'6 20 ¼ to 20 ½ wide XFC and 1/8" to 3/8" wider.

So shorter wider at 6'5 x 20 5/8 wide and 2 ¾ thick has given a slight fish-like performance boost. Also I'm using PC7 (4 ¾" deep) or Simon upgrade S25 (4 11/16" deep) side fins combined with an PC3 (at 4 3/8" deep) smaller back fin in smaller 1 to 3 feet waves. This bigger small fin combo provides a little more spark in the smaller range of surf, optimizing performance.

 I'm 100 plus kilos, if you are smaller 88kg down to 65kg your combo for small waves would be PC5 side fins (4 9/16" deep) and back fin a PC2 (at 4 ¼" deep) for example, keep in mind upgrade fins will give you better performance in most conditions and when the waves are good go back to a uniform set of the same size fins.

                                         Shyama at Winki with the Fusion.

Shyama Buttonshaw not looking like he is going to land softly on the Fusion's slightly wider nose and tail.

The Fusion is similar and replaces some old models like the Interceptor and EQ. This is an important model because a lot of the surf we get week in week out is suited to this style of board.

HAMSTRING

Most of you know I tore the hamstring off the bone same as Mick Fanning. Although I don't expect to come back and win 2 World Titles like Mick, I do expect to get back into surfing hopefully in as good condition as before.

The day before the hamstring injury, surfing in the legends heat at the Quiksilver Pro Snapper Rocks.

   

Boarding the flight home from Gold Coast to Sydney.                            Waiting in hospital.

David Wood was the surgeon from the Mater Hospital in North Sydney who performed the operation which is I guess pretty complex but done in 1 day, in in the morning and back home later in the day. The recovery however is slow, taking 6 months before you can expect to be back in the water.
I'm 10 weeks out from the operation progressing well I guess and working on rehab, physio, some swimming, a bit of walking, chiropractic and will be still water stand up paddling soon. I have been designing some rehabilitation boards and am looking forward to making them and starting to surf again.

MICHAEL PETERSON REST IN PEACE

To Mrs Peterson, Dot and Tommy deepest sympathies at the passing of your son and brother.

Your dedication to Michael in his later years has been a wonderful thing.
Mick will of course be remembered forever in Australian surfing.He was arguably the greatest Australian surfer of all time dominating contests in Australia for most of the 1970's.

I was fortunate enough to compete against Mick during this period and was privileged to see a lot of his ground breaking performances in the surf and glimpse some of his state of the art shapes taking surfing and boards to the next couple of levels.
You could also argue that Michael was the greatest surfer, shaper designer of all time anywhere.

His contribution to surfing and influence on surfing and board design, pushing it to previously unknown levels can only be compared to Kelly Slater.

Michael's hero was Nat Young, he wanted to surf like Nat, he did that for sure and will always be held in the highest esteem in the lofty halls of surfing freaks.
Mick you touched surfing with your magic and surfing is forever better for it.





Image by Frank Pithers - Mike flying on his way to winning '73 Bells.

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach 2011 Official Trailer

Thruster inventor Simon Anderson into Hall fo Fame

Thruster inventor Simon Anderson into Hall fo Fame

Surf History

Simon Anderson joins roster of 2011 Surfers' Hall of Fame inductees

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 4 April, 2011 : - - Simon Anderson, an Australian surfer/board shaper best known for developing the “Thruster” design of three equal-size fins, will be inducted into the 2011 Surfers’ Hall of Fame. Anderson will join George Downing, Taylor Knox and Chuck Linnen as they have their hand and footprints immortalized in cement for the ages on Friday, August 5 at 10:00 a.m. in front of Huntington Surf & Sport.

Famed sports announcer/commentator David Stanfield and five-time U.S. Surfing Champion Corky Carroll will serve as Masters of Ceremony. Information is available at hsssurf.com/shof

Raised in Sydney, Simon Anderson began his competitive career in 1971 with a juniors win at the Australian National Titles and the Bells Beach Classic contests. Known for his power and easygoing style, Anderson became a frontrunner in many local and international competitions, placing second in the Australian National Titles in 76’, fourth at the 77’ Pipeline Masters, and winning the 77’ Bells and Coke Surfabout. Those wins in 77’, on single-fin boards, put him into the top 10 on the ASP Tour and gave him a chance of taking the title, until the twin-fin intervened.

Fellow Aussie Mark Richards had created a twin-fin design which greatly helped sharp turns on steep waves, by always having one fin deep in the wave. The twin-fin was capable of performing in the poor wave conditions and locations that the ASP events were often held at that time. Within months, surfers on this design were winning most of the competitions, but it was badly unsuited to Anderson's size (over six feet tall) and style. He simply overpowered the twin fin and didn't like the idea of having to 'nurse' the board through turns, and stated at the time that he wasn't going to compromise his surfing to adapt to the design.

That’s when Anderson went to work on perfecting the existing three fin concept (a single fin with two smaller outer fins) for added power and stability. His prototype featured three equal-size fins so he named it “Thruster” because the water gets pushed through the fins in the turn. According to Anderson, the single fin (just) holds that speed through a turn whereas with the twin fins, obviously the speed was quickly released and you'd just zip along. The third fin was controlling that thrust throughout the turn.

Anderson’s Thruster design was met with skepticism initially, thought perhaps merely a gimmick, or only for Anderson's particular size and style. Following design enhancements in 1981, he won the Bells Beach Classic and the Coke Surfabout in Sydney, for a second time, then later the Pipe Masters at Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. Those victories silenced the critics and brought the thruster to everyone's attention; from 1984 onward every world champion has used a thruster.

“What Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) and the “iPhone and iPad” have done for the World, Simon Anderson and the “Thruster” have done for the Sport of Surfing’” said Surfers’ Hall of Fame founder Aaron Pai. “Just as the iPhone and iPad revolutionized consumer technology; the Thruster revolutionized and advanced our Sport of Surfing!

“Simon has given generations of surfers the gift of progression and the ability to do what they can do today! We are honored and extremely excited that Simon Anderson will be inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame this summer!”

The nation’s first imprint collection of legendary surfers, the Surfers’ Hall of Fame celebrated its first induction in 1997 inside of specialty retailer Huntington Surf & Sport where several slabs remain. Four years later with the blessing of the City Council and a stunning bronze statue of sport’s spiritual leader Duke Kahanamoku serving as a backdrop, the ceremony moved outside to the corner of PCH and Main; less than 100 feet from the famed Huntington Beach Pier, site of the U.S. Open of Surfing.

The Surfers’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony is open to the public, free-of-charge.

http://hsssurf.com/shof

S BOARDS 2011

There will be a few things happening in 2011, primarily with board development. I'm working on a new SXE model called not surprisingly SXE3, a new Mollusc, a new DSC and you can't help but work on more small wave boards. We will continue to refine and hopefully improve most of the range,probably drop some models out while bringing new ones in.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Thruster's unveiling at the 1981 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach contest, so that's a decade for every fin.

Machines - I'm very excited about the way our machine is cutting the pre-shapes we use, and that is cleanly and consistently, giving me a great foundation to work from. With the APS machine cutting consistency I can really get creative on the software program and develop the designs beautifully. What this means to you is that custom orders or the Simon stock boards you see in the shop will be accurate with the right balance of rail volume, thickness distribution, rocker curve and outline curve.


Surftech –
We are introducing the XFC and Mollusc models to the Surftech Tuflite range this year. So if you are a fan of the sandwich construction boards have a look at our small range in Surftech Dealer Shops.

In the XFC model the 3 board range are all single to double concave, rounded square tails and FCS fin system.
The XFC dimensions -
6'6 x 20 x 2 11/16 6'4 x 19 x 2 1/2
6'2 x 18 3/4 2 3/8
In the Mollusc the 3 boards are all FCS including -
6'10 x 21 x 2 3/4 Swallow tail single to double concave with vee at the swallow.
6'4 x 20 1/4 x 2 5/8 Roundtail single to double concave
6'2 x 20 x 2 /12 Roundtail single to double

Surftech also have a new range called Ultraflx, which is a new style epoxy board with interesting flex patterns.

You can check out my range of boards and get info on these technologies if you go to the Surftech website:
www.surftechaustralia.com.au
They are not listed in the US Surftech website as yet.

The Ultraflx range includes 4 XFC boards all rounded square tails, and 4 DK quad model boards all swallow tails, and all featuring the FCS fin system.
The XFC's include -
6'3 x 19 x 2 7/16 single to double concave
6'2 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8 single to double
6'1 x 18 5/8 x 2 5/16 single concave
6'0 x 18 3/8 x 2 1/4 single concave

The DK boards are single to double concave but with vee in the back half of the board on the bottom, the double concave cuts through this moderate vee deepest at the forward fins and still substantial at the swallow tail.
Dimensions include -
6'0 x 20 1/4 x 2 1/2
5'11 x 20 x 2 7/16
5'10 x 19 3/4 x 2 3/8
We will be adding to the Quad Ultraflx range with a 6'6, 6'4 and 6'2 DK board.

Team - To see a few waves of Adam Robertson surfing his home turf way down South of Torquay last week go to: http://vimeo.com/18523644 . See you in the surf,Simon